A high school horticulture class just finished turf-study projects and small sprouts of vegetables and flowers are taking root in the Goessel High School vocational agriculture greenhouse. Also growing is the students’ understanding of how things thrive in nature.
“We are in the middle of planting and starting all our peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelons, asparagus ferns, and flowers,” teacher Zana Manche said. “We are hoping to help the elementary garden speed up their process by providing the seedlings for them to work with.”
Manche said three classes work mainly with greenhouse activities — eighth grade exploring agriculture, freshmen agri-science, and the horticulture class.
“In horticulture we just finished up our mini-turf design projects,” Manche said. “The students each designed and planted a section of sod-grass, then had to grow and maintain it, even under adverse conditions.”
Manche said students designed their plots to represent golf courses, baseball fields, or other types of turf-based sport fields.
“For each of three weeks, I either showed them a picture of a damaging insect or flooded their fields,” Manche said. “Then they had to make a report of what happened, what they needed to do about it, and how they fixed the problem.”
After the project was over, several students decided to keep growing their turf plots.
In addition to turf and sprouting vegetables, plugs of geraniums and hanging baskets of pansies, petunias, and snapdragons fill the school greenhouse, providing opportunity for students to get hands-on experience in developing their own green thumbs.
“We plan to have a plant sale through the whole month of May,” Manche said. “If there is something in particular someone would like to see us grow, they can contact the school and let me know.”